Shut Up We're Talking episode #28 is out this week and here is the agenda:

Topics:
Introductions
Listener mail/What we’re playing
Vets being babies?
Screw Imbalance
Exploration and Challenge
Blog of the Week

Hosts:
Darren - Commonsensegamer.com
Karen - Journey’s with Jaye
Michael - MMOG nation
Brent - Virgin Worlds

The topics on this week's show were of good interest to me, I agree a lot with what Darren/John had to say about on the subject of "Vets being whiny". It's standard procedure in business to "lure" in new customers with all sorts of deals, leaving current customers in the corner. The benefit to current customers is not as direct and instant, so they don't realize it, IMO. When new customers come in, be it for a MMO, or a phone company or whatever, the company is going to become stronger and larger. Now that company will have the opportunities to improve itself be it providing new features, making themselves more stable or whatever. That’s a huge benefit to the veteran player, not to mention new blood in the community to add to your guild, or gank if your into pvp.

On the topic of "Screw Imbalance" I have to agree 100%. Make some classes way more powerful, just because a class is more "better" doesn't mean it’s the only class people will play, and it definitely doesn't mean it's the best class. Even in the pvp realm, I think balance is way too much of a focus. Diversity is what keeps these games fun, and that should be the focus, keep the classes interesting and your players will stay interested.

I'd like to take this moment to thank Darren, Karen and the crew of SWUT for mentioning me on the podcast as the "Blog of the week". You guys have been putting out a quality show for 28 episodes now, and I can't wait to keep seeing them come out in the future. Keep it up guys!

Take a listen to the show, and then make sure you digg it!

P.S. Hey Darren, I've completed my task, and added Brent and Michael to my blogroll.